The Dress…

…that made it to a million corporate Christmas parties! 

Well, ok at least three. And I have the photos to prove it, starting with the oldest when Erin Riley and I shared a cubicle at NM, where we were both placed on assignment, shortly after completing COBOL programming boot camp (which launched my IT career), and we adored each other so we requested the professional photographer take this photo of us (in addition to the ones we took with our dates) at the Compuware Christmas party.

I remember being so impressed with these parties, at least for the first few years. The decorations, the food, the drinks, the dancing! It was the late 90s and the IT money was flowing for sure.

The first one I recall was held at the fancy-pants Pfister hotel in downtown Milwaukee (and husband, also working for Compuware, attended with me and so we splurged on a room for the night); the second one was at the new Midwest Express convention center also in downtown Milwaukee. I think this first photo is from the second one and so it would have been December of 1999, if I’m not mistaken.

Fast-forward to 2013 when I attended the Catalina holiday party as my friend Danielle’s “plus-one” (being a contractor at the time, not an employee of Catalina, I did not have my own invitation). Danielle to my right, our manager Michelle to my left. At a very cool event space in downtown Tampa that used to be a bank (I think).

And finally, the dress reappears at this most recent party - 

I have no idea what decade the dress is from but it feels very 50s housewife to me. I’m pretty sure I got it at a thrift store or rummage sale in Seattle before moving to Milwaukee in 1995. 

Then there was another dress also bought second hand, I think for $1 at a thrift store in Ormond Beach, FL with my friend who used to live there. I loved it but sadly, it never made an appearance at a holiday party because I could never get skinny enough at the right time and finally I realized it was too threadbare to wear anyway, so I re-donated it. But damn, that would have been a fun dress to wear to a holiday party!